By Israel Joel
Former Plateau Governor, Senator Jonah Jang, at the weekend described the claim by former Niger Governor Babangida Aliyu that the then 19 northern Governors worked against the second term bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan as a blatant lie.
Jang said he was not part of the northern conspiracy against Jonathan’s reelection bid in 2015.
This was contained in a statement signed by Clinton Garuba, the
Media consultant to Senator Jonah Jang and made available to newsmen in Jos .
It reads “The attention of the immediate past governor of Plateau State, Senator Dr. Jonah Jang has just be drawn to a statement credited to the past governor of Niger State where he alleged that the then 19 states Northern governors met, deliberated and all decided not to support the re-election of the then President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 and wish to state categorically that Senator Dr. Jonah Jang was not part of that meeting.
He stressed that For the avoidance of doubt, despite the perceived shortcomings of President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Jonah believed that president Jonathan was better equipped to rule Nigeria at the time, especially when his opponent was General Buhari who Jang did not hide his conviction concerning Buhari’s inabilities to resolve the Nation’s challenges and sensitivities of the issues at the moments .
“Unfortunately, Buhari won and we are all witnesses to the tales of woes.”
“We view the statement of Dr. Aliyu as an attempt to drag the hard earn reputation of Jang into disrepute, having served Nigeria as a military officer , later a civilian Governor and Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and discharged his responsibilities without blemish.
The statement further reads that Senator Jang is not one who speaks from both sides of his mouth rather he speaks and support only what he believes, little wonder that Plateau was won by President Jonathan in the 2015 general elections, largely due to the hard work of the then Governor.
For emphasis sake, there was no basis for Dr. Jang not to have supported Dr. Jonathan especially when the contest was against General Buhari”, the statement further added .
